Nathan has hooked up Japan to the absolutely free Schwimmerlegal International Trademark Metasearch. You can now conduct a combined dead-hit search from the trademark registries of the U.S., Canada, Madrid (WIPO), EC (CTM) and Japanese databases. I tested out the Japanese database with DRAGONBALL Z, TOYOTA, YOMIURI GIANTS, POCARI SWEAT and KONAMI (purveyor of YU-GI-OH!) to be sure it was working.

Results are returned in several minutes in a stunning green and blue table, suitable for emailing, using a simple cut and paste technique. More countries to be added, dependent upon time, money and programmer’s level of concentration.

A dead-hit search is not a substitute for a full search evaluated by qualified counsel. That would be where I come in.